For various reasons, large quantities of hazardous chemicals are shipped and/or stored in 55 gallon drums as well as in drums of smaller sizes. Due to environmental concerns as well as government regulation, disposal of these drums when empty, or substantially empty, requires careful handling to dispose of the drum and its contents in a safe manner so as to prevent unnecessary exposure to or contamination by hazardous materials. Due to the obvious inconvenience of shipping and handling empty drums, it is preferable that the drums be cleaned and reduced in volume prior to being transported to a suitable disposal site from the location at which they are emptied of their commercial contents.
Frequently use of the drum contents occurs in remote locations which exacerbates the problem of cleaning and crushing the drums. Due to these circumstances, much of this work is done manually, or with various types of equipment, each requiring a separate power source and, in many instances, using equipment such as bulldozers or other heavy equipment not designed specifically for the task of crushing the drums.
Portable high pressure sprayers can be used for washing out drums, but these do not provide a uniform measure of performance nor means for containing the effluent produced by spraying and washing.
An object of the present invention is to provide a new and improved overall apparatus for cleaning and crushing large drums in which various steps can be performed mechanically and/or hydraulically with equipment designed for various specific tasks in the overall operation and which preferably share a single power source.
It is also an object of this invention to provide a means for draining drums and handling the drums once the top has been removed to provide a controlled high-pressure wash for both inside and outside the drums simultaneously.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a simple means for transferring the open drum to and from a spray wash booth to a drum crusher for crushing the drum.
An object of this invention is to provide a drum crusher which includes reinforcing means for aligning and guiding a movable platen so as to minimize racking forces in the crusher which impede efficient operation.
These and other objects will become apparent from the following specification which describes the invention as illustrated in the accompanying drawings wherein: